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Speech by 

Hon. Chauncey M. Depew 

On His Eighty-seventh Birthday at the 

Montauk Club, Brooklyn, N. Y., 

April 30th, 1921, Being the 

30th Annual Dinner 

Given Him by 

This Club 









speech by 

Hon. Chauncey M. Depew 

On His Eighty-seventh Birthday at the 

Montauk Club, Brooklyn, N. Y., 

April 30th, 1921, Being the 

30th Annual Dinner 

Given Him by 

This Club 



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By Tranoto 

SEP 24 1923 



speech by Hon. Chauncey M. Depew on his Eighty- 
seventh Birthday at the Montauk Club, Brooklyn, 
N. Y., April 30th, 1 92 1, being the 30th Annual 
Dinner given him by this Club. 

Mr. President and Friends: All of our meetings and 
greetings have been interesting. Some of them have had spe- 
cial significance. This, the thirtieth, marks an epoch. It is 
difficult to grasp the idea and visualize the recollections of 
thirty years of continuous celebrations of the birthday of a 
single individual. Necessarily, in the course of nature, most 
who were at our first dinner have joined the majority, but their 
places have been filled by their sons and new members, equally 
loyal to this original idea. It is a tribute to the continuance of 
friendships, under all conditions, favorable and unfavorable, 
and it is a monument to good fellowship. 

The Untruth about Growing Selfishness 

We hear so much of the growing selfishness of com- 
munities, of their jealousies, rivalries and competitions which 
separate them into hostile groups that we get a general idea 
that good fellowship and unselfish companionship have largely 
disappeared. Like most generalizations from narrow data, 
this is untrue. College fraternities for undergraduates were 
never so prosperous and never so homogeneous as they are 
now. The annual alumni meetings were never so largely at- 
tended, and never with such admirable results, both for the 
individual alumnus and Alma iMater. Our meeting here has 
no political, religious, sectional, trade or personal purpose. 
It is simply a significant proof that men of all creeds and 
professions can meet together and enjoy each other with hearty 
good will, and separate with better purposes for the welfare 
and prosperity of the community in which they live, of the 
state of which it is a part, of the country which represents it 
entire and of their associates. 

It is an almost forgotten memory how often the country 
has gone to the dogs during these thirty years. The tragedy 
at the time of the crisis was that so many of our people had 
lost faith in the future. It is well that we are so absorbed in 
the policies or measures or conditions of the hour that we 

I 



visualize their dangers and concentrate ourselves upon their 

remedies. 

President Harrison 

It was a happy promise for the future that we began 
these birthday celebrations during Harrison's administration. 
Harrison was among the ablest of our Presidents. He was a 
great international lawyer and brought about a settlement of 
the long pending and critical disputes with Great Britain in 
the Behring Sea which satisfied American opinion and Ameri- 
can honor. He strengthened the Federal courts by a selection 
of judges for merit and in disregard of partisan claims and 
political pressure. His appointments won from his successor, 
Grover Cleveland, who also was a firm friend of the judiciary, 
this praise, "I cannot see how he did it. I thought I recognized 
the importance of the Federal courts resisting mere party pres- 
sure and giving to my appointments jealous care, but I must 
confess that Harrison has beaten me." 

Dr. Cadman, the eloquent Brooklyn preacher, in a recent 
address on orators, says, "Perfect taste in public speech was 
as nearly attained by President Harrison as by any publicist 
of the last thirty years." 

President Cleveland 
Our experiences with Cleveland were original and interest- 
ing. He was a Chief Magistrate much misunderstood by 
his co-temporaries, but has grown in reputation with the years. 
Our country was going to the dogs and rescued twice during 
his administration, and by his courage and statesmanship. The 
strikes under the leadership of Mr. Debs tied up all the rail- 
roads of the country and by paralysis of transportation threat- 
ened to destroy all business and starve and freeze the people. 
It was easy, without much exaggeration, to picture what would 
happen in great industrial centers when such conditions were 
created, but President Cleveland was equal to the occasion. 
He said that if it took all the forces at the command or control 
of the government, the mails should be carried and communi- 
cation between the different parts of the country kept open. 
He immediately mobilized the army and drew upon the navy, 
the country responded and in a few days the national highways 
were free. 



One of the singular and almost universal crazes of our 
financial experience was the enthusiasm of that period for 
silver as the standard of value. One of the great parties was 
almost unanimously for it and the other so infected that at 
least a majority were in favor of it. This led to legislation 
which would have speedily resulted in the United States taking 
its place alongside that of IMexico and China, and losing its as- 
sociation with the great commercial and industrial nations of 
the world. Mr. Cleveland saw the situation very clearly and de- 
manded a repeal of these laws. He found the leaders of his 
own party unanimously against him, and little help from the 
opposition. Then he made an appeal to human nature. The 
appeal demonstrated that Rochefoucauld, the great French 
philosopher and creator of maxims was eminently correct 
when he remarked, "There is a great deal of human nature 
in this world." 

Mr. Cleveland's party, for the first time since the Civil 
War, or in a generation, was in control of every branch of 
the government. The hunger of a quarter of a century had 
reached an acuteness where it was ravenous. It was hunger 
for that most alluring position to so many Americans, the 
possession of ofhce. The masses came down on their Senators 
and Representatives in Congress ; they crowded the capitol, 
they invaded the halls of legislation, they were armed with 
information who could be turned out and replaced and what 
new places could be created. Mr. Cleveland met the Senators 
and Congressmen with the calm statement, "My silver repeal 
first, and then I will take care of your constituents." The 
Senators and Congressmen sent their constituents to the White 
House ; the President received them with cordiality and said, 
"The places you want and which I want to give you are in the 
hands of your Senators and members of Congress, as soon 
as they repeal this iniquitous silver bill." These office seekers 
were all silver advocates, but not at the expense of the office 
which they desired. They bombarded their Representatives 
in Congress and held up to them the certainty of their political 
death unless they opened the gates so that they could march 
triumphantly into the departments of the government and take 
possession. The result was Mr. Cleveland's repeal bills were 
passed, a financial crisis of the gravest peril to our industrial 

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and commercial situation was averted, a most distinguished 
service was done to the country and the President became the 
most unpopular man in the United States. He retired from 
office almost by unanimous consent, and yet will take his place 
when the roll call is made in the future of our Presidents as 
one of the most courageous and wisest of executives. 

President McKinley 

Then we passed through the administration of William 
McKinley. He was so cordial, so companionable, had such 
universal interests, that he almost seemed present at our annual 
gatherings. Without regard to party, he was popular with 
us all. McKinley's disposition was so kindly that he could 
not say no, and it is pleasant to recall what is now forgotten, 
that he gratified all applicants for office by a phrase which 
at one time was of national use, "My dear friend, I cannot 
give you what you wish, but I will give you something equally 
as good." If the aspirant wanted to go to Paris and received 
an appointment of the same grade for Africa, he was mollified 
but not satisfied. 

The convention which nominated Mr. McKinley marked 
another crisis. The silver forces had gathered, the other party 
was committed to their view and it looked as if the Republicans 
might equally be stampeded and the country return to a silver 
basis. But by a combination of circumstances, more psycho- 
logical than practical, a gold plank was inserted in the Repub- 
lican platform. Very many of the delegates were frightened 
when this was discovered. The result, however, very unex- 
pectedly proved that the stone which had nearly been rejected 
was the corner of the whole edifice. There were many planks 
in the platform and the strongest was the tariff, but it turned 
out that the most popular was the gold plank. It grew in 
strength and in popularity day by day until election. It was 
universally recognized as the source of McKinley's strength 
and of his election. Then came this interesting episode. Every 
statesman in the convention claimed to be its author. Senator 
Foraker, in his interesting autobiography, devotes unusual 
space to proving that none of these claims had any rights, 
but that the committee of which he was chairman and which 
he dominated, was the author. He was so angry because a 



well known newspaper proprietor, who had formerly been a 
baker, claimed the authorship of the gold plank and was 
asserting it constantly in his newspaper, that he published 
with great glee a letter from the eloquent and sarcastic Sen- 
ator Ingalls of Kansas in which he said, "I am glad you slit 
the gullet of that pastry cook." I was overwhelmed with 
requests for a certificate of authorship by many distinguished 
and ambitious statesmen. 

Presidents Roosevelt and Taft 

It was a fruitful lifetime during the administration of 
Theodore Roosevelt. I was in Buffalo when President Mc- 
Kinley died. The next evening Mr. Roosevelt arrived. It 
was thought necessary that there should be no interruption in 
the government, that Mr. Roosevelt should be at once inducted 
into office. A small party met in the parlor of the private 
house where Mr. Roosevelt was staying and a United States 
district judge administered the oath of office. Mr. Elihu Root, 
then Secretary of State, in one of the most impressive ad- 
dresses ever delivered, and with a voice full of tears, stated 
to the Vice President the necessity for his at once assuming 
executive duties because of the tragedy which had taken the 
life of the President. I left the house with Mark Hanna. The 
interview called to my mind Cardinal Wolsey's soliloquy in 
Shakespeare's Henry VHI. A few hours before, Hanna was 
the Warwick of the administration. His unrivaled practical 
ability admirably supplemented and enriched for practical ad- 
ministration the ideahsm of the President. He knew perfectly 
well that with the forceful, masterly and aggressive Roosevelt, 
there was no place for a Warwick. What promised to be 
one of the most influential careers in American politics had 
suddenly come to an end. 

For seven years Theodore Roosevelt was President of 
the United States. We never had a dull moment during that 
period. His activity, versatility and genius for affairs were 
phenomenal. The strike in the coal region threatened to stop 
production, close factories and freeze people in their homes. 
He brought the operators and operatives together and in his 
masterful way forced a settlement. The whole country had 
a thrill. The war between Russia and Japan threatened to 

5 



involve the world. Roosevelt saw the peril and acted in his 
own original way, on his own initiative. Figuratively he 
grasped each combatant by the neck and said, "In the interests 
of civilization, you must get together." The command was 
obeyed and Roosevelt received the Nobel prize. We had 
another thrill. 

Balboa, standing on the heights of the Isthmus dreamed 
of uniting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The world master, 
Charles V, wished he might have the power to accomplish 
that result. Four hundred years elapsed, with succeeding 
nations and their rulers desiring to unite the two oceans. 
It became absolutely necessary for the United States that its 
eastern and western coasts should be brought together 
commercially, and that they might be protected by one navy. 
Roosevelt conceived the plan, presented it to Colombia and 
after various agreements had been made and broken, in his 
own original way he built the Panama Canal. To critics who 
assailed him from various viewpoints, his only answer was, 
"We got the ditch." And we had another thrill. 

Then we had more thrills when Roosevelt opposed the 
Kaiser in the Venezuela controversy and saved the Alonroe 
Doctrine, and still more when he asserted the rights of Ameri- 
can citizenship against the Moroccan bandit chieftain Raizuli. 
It is too early yet to predict Roosevelt's place in American 
history, but the cult is growing and when to picturesque and 
romantic facts such as I have briefly stated, is added with 
the years the force of tradition, Roosevelt may take his place 
as the third of a triumvirate with Washington and Lincoln. 
Every one of us knew him; he was our neighbor and our 
friend. That is one of the great privileges of having lived 
during this period. 

We enjoyed Taft, his ability, his justice, his fairness, and 
we basked and were merry and glad in the sunshine of his 
resistless smile. 

President Wilson 

We cannot escape a brief review of our experience with 
President Wilson. It was original. Mr. Wilson was for a 
time the foremost, the most popular and powerful statesman 
in the world. I have found in meeting intimately during my 

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long life masterful men in every department of aelivity, that all 
of them if they continue in the same line until after middle 
age, never escape or try to get rid of their training. Presi- 
dent Wilson had a great mind and boundless industry, 
and as a teacher soon reached the head of one of the great 
universities of the country. For almost a generation, as a 
teacher, he was bringing immature minds to a preparation 
where they could enter fully equipped upon the competitions 
and activities of life. He did not want from them either 
advice or suggestion. That was natural. It was for him to 
set them on the right path and keep them in it. One of the 
most remarkable revolutions in our political history made 
him President, with a large majority of his party friends 
both in the Senate and House of Representatives. 

What Democratic Senators Said 
Democratic Senators, with whom I served for many years, 
told me that Wilson never consulted them, nor would he ac- 
cept their volunteered advice. They said, "We had free com- 
munication with McKinley, Roosevelt and Taft, but our Presi- 
dent presents us measures and says, 'Enact them into law.' 
Our constituents accept him as the leader of our party. Pie 
declines to discuss the matter and says simply, 'This is a party 
measure, and I trust you will not make it necessary for me 
to tell your people that you are no longer a Democrat.' We 
all surrender our personal convictions and obey the order. 
The few who have refused to do so, he has retired to private 
life by simply so advising their constituents." So Mr. V/ilson 
had more power over Congress than any of our Presidents, 
not excepting General Jackson. His own reason for his per- 
sonal policy was that he has a single track mind. To a railroad 
man, that simile is very clear. A locomotive on a single track 
cannot be passed by one behind it, nor have another move 
beside it. If there is one coming in the opposite direction, a 
collision necessarily occurs. 

The League of Nations. What the Farmer Said 
Mr. Wilson, with his great ability, threw himself whole- 
heartedly into the formation of peace by the creation of a 
League of Nations. Foreigners are unable to understand why 

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that proposed League of Nations was not accepted by the 
American people. The reason can be found in Mr. Wilson's 
favorite explanation of most difficulties, and that is — American 
psychology. The whole American people wanted peace, not 
only wanted, but were eager for it, and yet the League of 
Nations was rejected on a direct issue by over 7,000,000 ma- 
jority; over a million in our State of New York, and nearly 
400,000 in our great city. Libraries have been written on the 
subject, and yet the explanation is found in the remark of a 
farmer to a journalist friend of mine. This reporter was out 
for his paper, which was ardently for the League of Nations 
as presented by Mr. Wilson, to get public opinion, and espe- 
cially in its favor. He found a farmer in the fields and ap- 
proached him on the subject. The farmer said, "Yes, I se- 
cured a copy of the League of Nations* and I have read it 
three times, and I am opposed to it." "Why?" said the re- 
porter. "Because," answered the farmer, "there is no Bunker 
Hill in it." 

The Voice of Washington 

In the psycholog}^ of the American people there is an 
ineradicable sentiment of revolutionary patriotism. It may 
be hidden by our national prosperity, by materialism, by the 
obvious advantages of the present, but if the crisis is sufficient 
and the appeal goes deep enough, the American citizen as a 
rule is with the founders of the Republic. He may be called 
isolated or provincial or behind the times or unequal to the 
responsibility which the cable and the wireless have placed 
upon the citizens of the world by making them one, and yet 
when he hears or thinks he hears the voice of Washington 
saying, "Be friendly with all nations, but have entangling al- 
liances with none and keep out of European quarrels," when 
he hears or thinks he hears that same sentiment repeated, 
either in inaugural addresses or messages, by every succeeding 
President of the United States, his mind is made up and his 
position is fixed. 

The Opinion of the Man in the Street 
I have been actively in politics for sixty-five years, not 
as an office holder, but as an American profoundly interested 
in our government. When I used to take the stump for a 



few weeks, I could always tell how the State or country 
•would go. It was because I sedulously sought the opinion 
•of the man in the street. The man in the street is the every- 
day fellow, just like you and me, and nine-tenths of the time 
his mind is occupied with his personal affairs and associations, 
but in a political crisis he thinks nationally. So going through 
the State I interviewed everybody — the passengers on the cars, 
not on the drawing-room but the ordinary cars, the conductor, 
brakeman and the engineer on the train, the men in the shops, 
the farmer in the fields, the casual acquaintance at the hotels. 
It is curious, in a hardly contested fight, to notice how a wave 
of similar sentiment will sw^eep over the country and impress 
all these people the same way. The man in th.e street rules 
our country, and makes mighty few mistakes. 

President Harding 

It was one of the privileges of a lifetime for me to be 
at the same hotel at St. Augustine, Florida, where President 
Harding spent most of his vacation. It was a rare opportunity 
to judge our Chief Executive. He worked hard in the morn- 
ing in conferences with party leaders and prospective Cabinet 
officers. Pie played golf in the afternoon with the regular 
players on the course, and captured all of them. Pie was 
accessible to everybody and his mind transparently open to 
suggestions. One of the leading southern Democrats of Flor- 
ida said to me, "Senator Harding, by his good fellowship, 
-camaraderie and cordiality with our people, has come mighty 
near breaking up our party." 

His first act in opening the gates to the White House 
grounds and the doors of the White House is significant, as 
was the ancient method with the temple of Janus, only with 
a reversal of the process ; the gates of the temple were open 
during war and closed for peace. Once in the White House 
the President immediately summoned the leaders of Congress, 
he called together the members of his Cabinet, he invited the 
Vice President to sit with them, he consulted with the Chief 
Justice of the Supreme Court, he saw men of leading minds 
from ever}^ walk in life. Before he acts, he will have received 
hospitably every suggestion, advice or information possible 
on the subject, but the judgment he forms will be his own. 

9 



I believe that judgment will be right, and that it will be ac- 
cepted as such by the American people. One of the leading 
Democratic papers in the South while I was there and after 
the President had left Florida, said, "We have yet to find a 
paper which is hostile to President Harding. The whole field 
of journalism accepts the tremendous verdict of the country 
and wishes the President a successful administration." 

Production the Keynote of Industrial Salvation 

There never has been a time in our history when our 
entire population, men, women and children, were so immedi- 
ately affected by the government as now. Out of the great 
war to which we contributed unstintedly of our manhood and 
our means, have come burdens which rest heavily upon us. 
Relief can only be had by wise legislation and responsive effort 
from the people. Productiveness is the keynote of our indus- 
trial salvation. The older nations of the world, on account 
of economic necessities, have taken finance out of politics and 
treated financial questions with expert ability. Our system 
has been a happy-go-lucky one, because our resources were 
enormous and our needs not in proportion. All highly organ- 
ized governments have had a budget for the year which de- 
tailed what was required and then the taxes were distributed 
and levied accordingly. We have appropriated the money first 
in a haphazard way and tlien tried to find sufficient revenue. 
The surplus of our tariff after taking care of the government 
prevented right thinking upon taxation. 

Different Ways of Taxation 

When the war thrust upon Congress the necessity of 
raising billions instead of millions, politics still governed the 
situation. My old friend, Senator Tillman, knocked out 
stamps upon checks, an easy method of raising revenue, by 
shouting, "Every citizen v/ho licks a stamp will turn around 
and help to lick us." Tea, coffee and sugar, which are the 
large sources of revenue in every other country, were barred 
for revenue because we must not touch the American breakfast 
table. Alcohol for general use, another large contributor in 
other lands, was knocked out on moral grounds by prohibition, 
and tobacco treated vvith gentle hands. The national financiers, 

la 



abandoning all the lessons of experience, finally adopted prac- 
tically only one method for revenue. That was excessive 
taxation of business and individual success. The returns from 
these two sources are as unstable as the tides, and stability is 
the life of revenue. 

Employers and Employees Must Get Together 

in the fluctuating conditions of domestic and foreign 
trade, of demand and supply, of capital and labor, prosperity 
in business one year becomes a deficit the next. Our first 
need is for the whole population, rising to the occasion, as it 
did in the adoption of the gold standard, to help the govern- 
ment solve its problems and adjust the burdens, so that ade- 
quate revenue may be received and business stimulated ; that 
taxes be adjusted, not according to political popularity or 
sectional favoritism, but upon sound economic principles; 
that the different committees which have charge of many 
branches of appropriation be willing to surrender the patron- 
age and power of their position to a budget committee of su- 
preme authority. The victory of the Allies in the great war 
saved liberty and civilization for all future generations, and by 
the extension of the debt they should bear their proportion of 
the sacrifices which made them free. Employers and employees, 
as never before, must get together. Daniel Webster once said 
that the Ten Commandments, the Golden Rule and the law of 
Love were part of the common law of the land. Employers and 
employees who meet together in the spirit of this law can 
arrive in their several industries and occupations at adjust- 
ments which \vill promote mutual good will and the happiest 
results. 

Lenine's Communistic Principles 

It has been difficult for us during this war to appreciate 
its results. It is difficult for us now to grasp that we are in 
the midst of the solution of the problem of the ages. One of 
the most significant of recent utterances has been that of 
Lenine, the autocrat of Russia, to the congress of his deputies. 
For four years he has controlled Russia with an absolutism 
the Czar never was able to enforce. Having command of an 

II 



obedient army and all the sources of food and fuel he held 
180,000,000 people, a singularly undeveloped people, in a grip 
of steel. Property was ex-propriated, the intelligent and 
educated classes exterminated. After four years, during; 
which millions have died of starvation and tens of thousands 
have been arbitrarily executed, he finds himself and his govern- 
ment facing industrial and economic chaos, with no remedy 
in sight. He therefore says to the few who with him own 
the government, "Our communistic principles will not work. 
We have given them a fair trial and they are a failure. We 
must recognize property and its accumulation and protection. 
We have destroyed capitalists and enterprises in Russia ; we 
must import them from abroad. We must invite foreign 
capital. We must let it enjoy enormous profiits and be safe 
in its business and its accumulations. We must allow Russian 
enterprise to make headway and furnish security for its suc- 
cesses. We find the farmer will not produce unless he owns- 
his farm and controls his product. We find the manufacturer, 
must have the incentive of protection in his work and in its 
expansion. If, after ten years of capitalism, in other words a 
recognition of the right of a man or woman to what they earn 
or make, has placed our country upon a sound economic basis, 
then, or perhaps later, we may try again our communistic- 
principles." 

It Is Our Privilege to See the End of Ruling by Divink 

Right 

??■■ 

Going back millions of years, we find that the cave mart 
fought first for his wife, then for his cave, then for his farm 
and a patrimony for his children. With other cave men, he 
formed a government and elected a chief, about whom was 
thrown the mantle of divinity to protect his family and his 
property. As he developed government and laws, they were 
all for the safety of Hfe and property and the largest possible 
liberties consistent with everybody's else's liberties. The 
Rom.an Empire conquered the world because it carried every- 
where a system of law and justice which the people craved. 
Its corruption and the crimes of its emperors led to its de- 
struction. The principles of Christ captured mankind. New 

12 



governments were formed and divinity thrown around the 
king or emperor, but under him the people secured protection 
for their lives, their liberties and their property. In recent 
centuries a few royal families governed Europe by divine right. 
Their tyrannies led to the revolts of their subjects, who wanted 
more liberties for themselves and more protection for their 
property from confiscatory taxation. Napoleon shattered the 
principle of divine right as he tumbled kings from their 
thrones, but in 1816 the Holy Alliance was formed to extirpate 
representative government and protect the divinity of sover- 
eigns. The Monroe Doctrine prevented the Alliance from 
•destroying the Spanish republics of South and Central Amer- 
ica and Mexico. France, having thrown off the Bourbons, was 
seeking a government of the people through universal suf- 
frage, but the Hohenzollerns, the Hapsburgs, the Romanoffs 
and the family of Abdul Hamid still governed by divine right. 
The new factor, and the most revolutionary one, in the 
scheme of governing the world was the Republic of the United 
States. Its government began in the cabin of the Mayflower, 
by proclamation of a charter which said, "We will form a 
.government of just and equal laws." That evoluted into the 
Declaration of Independence and was crystallized in the Con- 
stitution of the United States. The quarrel between the Kaiser 
and the Czar, when from the intimacy of Willie and Xicky 
they became enemies, broke up the unity of the divinity of 
kings. The Kaiser and his allies, the Emperor of Austria, 
the Sultan of Turkey and the King of Bulgaria, staked the 
doctrine of the divine right of kings to rule the world and 
the overthrow of popular government upon the issue of war. 
They have failed, the Romanoff family is destroyed, the Haps- 
burgs and Hohenzollerns are in exile and the Sultan has lost 
his power. For the first time in the ages, the divine right 
of kings to govern is dead. There are a few kings, but they 
have no power. Everywhere it is a people's government, 
growing as nearly as possible in every case to the example of 
the Republic of the United States. There is absolute stability 
in the great powers of the United States, Great Britain and her 
self-governing colonies, in France and Italy. Starvation and 
economic cliaos threatens most all other nations. 

13 



No Great Men Out of this War 

We read the outlines of history so graphically presented 
and condensed by H. G. Wells. He pictures the rise, pros- 
perity and extinction of great empires. Babylon, Assyria, 
Persia, the Mongols, Egypt, Greece and Rome occupy the stage 
and become historic pictures, but they seem very local and 
very small compared with the tragedy of our own time upon 
which the curtain has not yet fallen. The singular phenom- 
enon of the present is that it has produced no great and 
dominating genius. More hu«ian beings have lost their lives, 
more boundaries of states have been changed, more far-reach- 
ing effects have been felt, from the highest civilization to the 
most savage nations or tribes, than in all the past ages put 
together, and yet it has produced no representative of the epoch, 
and no historian, or poet, or novelist to picture in enduring form 
its progress, its philosophy or significance. There is no Alex- 
ander the Great, no Cassar, no Napoleon, no Bismarck, no 
Washington, no Lincoln, no Gladstone ; no Dante to lead us 
through hell, no Milton to take us through heaven, no Walter 
Scott, no Dickens, no Thackery, no Irving, no Hawthorne. 
It may be because the peril is not yet past nor the results of 
the battle crystallized. Liberty and civilization are still facing 
chaos and anarchy in a great part of the world. Happily, the 
signs are hopeful, but for the solution there is still required 
the maximum of Christian forbearance, of wise statesman- 
ship, of universal helpfulness of the strong for the weak and 
of the prosperous for the needy. 

"How ABOUT Eighty-seven?" 

I should fail to meet the expectations of this occasion, 
so personal to myself, if I did not answer the question which 
is put to me every day, "How about eighty-seven ; how did 
you get there; how do you retain possession of all your facul- 
ties, and how are you so healthy, so happy, so hopeful ?" At 
the Republican National Convention at Chicago last June, I 
w'as suddenly called upon to make a speech. There were 
15,000 in the audience, the thermometer was 94, and the situa- 
tion difficult. Happily, the speech was a success, and mine, 
though by far the oldest, was with one exception the only 
voice distinctly heard. From the crowds gathering about with 

14 



their congratulations, I had an experience, which was one out 
of many I have had, of what the average person regards 
as the most encouraging thing to say. An enthusiast shouted, 
"Chauncey Depew, I want to shake your hand ; I have wanted 
to for twenty years, but I Hve up in the mountains, where 
you never come, and we seldom get down. I was in the con- 
vention hall there, on that platform up under the roof, two 
miles from the stage apparently. I never heard a word any 
other speaker said, but every word that you uttered. In your 
eighty-seventh year, it was a miracle. But come to think of it, 
my father on his eighty-fourth birthday was quite as remark- 
able, just as strong and vigorous as you were wdiile making 
that speech at eighty-seven, and a week afterward he was 
dead." 

Benjamin Franklin 

We have had many anniversaries during the year, but 
it seems to me, for every-day life and every-day people like 
you and me, old Benjamin Franklin and his thrift carries the 
most lessons. Matthew Arnold has put him on a pedestal 
as the most remarkable man of his period. Certainly he is 
the most inspiring. From nothing, he became of world-wide 
importance. All his life he was working, and happy in his 
work. He is the father of our modern successes with 
electricity. He was the philosopher of getting on and success 
who has inspired more people than all the libraries put to- 
gether. He was an inventor and he was a statesman. The 
rulers of Great Britain recognized his ability and he captured 
the beauties of the court of Louis XVI, the king, the queen 
and the government. Then along in the 8o's, and possess- 
ing the levelest head among the statesmen of our coun- 
try, he was the old man, eloquent and wise, in the Constitu- 
tional Convention. 

Franklin was always healthy, happy and had a good time. 
The lesson of his life was of varying one's occupation. 
It is the most valuable lesson for continuing intellec- 
tual and physical vigor and for success in the career which 
you have selected for your life work. The man who gives his 
days and nights wholly to his business or his profession, with- 
out any change of work or proper recreation or play, does not 

15 



live long and his talent deteriorates. He can pTay golf, or if 
that is denied him, baseball or football, or if that is too strenu- 
ous he can walk or row, or instead of plodding away and 
spurring a tired brain which has become exhausted by 
continuous strain, he can put his gray matter upon something 
else, learn to have an interest in that pursuit and turn to it for 
relief, recreation and life. ^ 

The Benefit of Variety of Occupation 

With one exception, all of my co-temporaries are dead 
who became railroad executives when I did. They died 
because they were chained to their desks and to their task. I 
found that I had no talent or taste for sport or physical exer- 
cise, but some ability for public speaking and easy preparation. 
My almost daily appearance before the public in the evening 
changed the switch, freshened my mind, gave me sleep and 
fresh brains for the morning's task, but it nearly lost me the 
confidence of my stockholders. 

One of the great crimes which shorten life is indifference. 
As one loses interest in his church, in his political party, in his 
club, in his friends and acquaintances, he dries up and the 
grave claims one whom no one wants or laments. The two 
most fatal phrases and the most common are, "What's the 
use?" and "Why should I?" A hungry and a needy world 
answers both with open opportunities for service, helpfulness 
and good fellowship, I once applied a radical remedy to a 
friend who came to my office broken in health and spirits and 
despairing. I said to him, "Take nothing seriously." It was 
hard for a serious man, in domestic grief and financial trouble, 
but months afterwards, he came again to my office, cheerful, 
happy and successful, and said, "Thanks for your remedy^ 
but it has lost me the confidence of my friends." 

Have a Hobby, Ne\^r a Fad 

Have a hobby, but never a fad. I look over with interest 
and amusement the fads of the past. When I was a young 
man, the country went mad over the speedy end of the world. 
A sect called the Millerites selected the day and the year. 
The confessions of unhappy couples, so that they might enter 
the next world at the assigned hour with a clean slate, led to. 

i6 



many of them hoping and praying that Gabriel would blow his 
trump at once. We all remember the blue glass cure. It was 
a picturesque sight on going to one's office in the morning to 
see in almost every house a big window through which the sun 
could shine, covered with blue glass and a man or woman sit- 
ting there, hoping for an early cure. We recall the enthusiasts 
who walked barefooted in the grass in the park to get the 
benefit of the early dew. We remember when it was generally 
taught and almost universally believed that the eating of fish 
increased one's brain power, and the enormous increase in 
skin troubles from over-indulgence. I recall with delight the 
story of the man who wrote his diagnosis to Dr. Oliver Wen- 
dell Holmes, and said, "Will you please prescribe how much 
fish I should eat a day for the improvement of my mind." 
The doctor answered, "In your case, I think it will be sufficient 
if you take for breakfast every morning a whale on toast." 

The Story of Carnaro 
Before Columbus sailed for America, a Venetian wrote 
the story of his life, which centuries after was found in the 
library of the University of Bologna and printed. His name 
was Carnaro. His first pamphlet was written when he was 
sixty. His story briefly is this : At forty, most of the young 
men of Venice who had money, died of excesses. He re- 
covered from his severe illness by the doctor putting him upon 
a severe diet. He felt so well, that he continued it. It amount- 
ed to about 12 ounces of selected food a day, with a pint only 
of red wine. At sixty, his co-temporaries were all dead. At 
eighty, he wrote another volume detailing the success of his 
experiment. At ninety, another, when he had recovered his 
fortune which had been lost by his grandson. At one hundred, 
another pamphlet, when he was still as vigorous as ever and 
"going some." History does not record what killed him at 
one hundred and five; it was probably over-indulgence. The 
greatest life-saver and health preserver is to be able to cut 
out whatever disagrees with one, and to limit the quantit}' of 
whatever agrees with you. 

My Mother's Advice 
I have investigated by personal experience spiritualism 
and its various forms of faith and practice. I have never been 

17 



satisfied that we really could get communication with the other 
world though I have tried very hard. I cannot believe that those 
we love who are there, and who would be delighted to com- 
municate with us, have yet the power to do so, but I have 
experienced two most helpful aids. Whenever great misfor- 
tune or losses overtook me, as they have, my mother, who 
was a firm Calvinist, has said, "The Lord has sent this to you 
3s a discipline. It is for your own good. Receive it as such 
and do the best you can, with renewed energy and hopeful- 
ness, and this apparent misfortune will prove a real bless- 
ing." In every case, this has come out as my mother pre- 
dicted. I have absolute faith, from, repeated trials, of the 
efficacy of prayer. While the answer has not come by voice 
or letter or through mediums, yet in some way it has been 
direct and positive. But the greatest aid is faith, faith in your 
church, at the same time with a broad charity for all who 
prefer other creeds ; faith in your government, when its foun- 
dations and principles have been demonstrated, like ours as 
the best ; faith in your fellow man and woman. You may be 
often deceived, cheated and meet with losses and embarrass- 
ment, but these are isolated, and very few compared with the 
great mass of friends and acquaintances who are dependable 
and valuable. Have faith in yourself and the guidance of God 
for proper living, thinking, associations and ambitions. 

Congratulations from President Harding 

■Mr. William H. English, President of the Montauk Club, 
who presided at the dinner, read a letter from President Hard- 
ing, in which the President expressed his regret that he was 
unable to attend and said: 

"I would greatly delight to sit beneath the spell of Mr. 
Depew's utterances from his wealth of memories expressed as 
none other is able to give expression. I should like for you 
to know that I share your reverence and esteem for him and 
I should be glad if I could contribute on this occasion some 
slight expression of my affectionate regard along with my wish 
that this celebration will continue for many, many years to 
come." 



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